Correspondence

...In my parish, we have twenty lectors and fifteen Eucharistic ministers who are women...

...It further appears Commonweal cannot forego the language of a previous generation(s) in its utilization of the phrase "church teaching...

...Finally, I think the author fails to acknowledge "the new moment" that the Catholic bishops noted in 1983 regarding the nuclear arms race...

...It would now appear, however, that the church as the "people of God," along with most Catholic moral theologians, has decided that under many circumstances contraceptives are not immoral...

...document about AIDS and the use of contraceptives, and still believe that dissenting bishops have at least a point...

...For each Sunday between March 8 of 1987 and February 14 of 1988, the book includes the following: citations for the three Sunday Scriptures and a one-line description of each reading, a paragraph from The Challenge of Peace, a paragraph from Economic Justice for All...

...How many women were involved in preparing the liturgy and music for those Masses...

...If these letters and their way of thinking are to become part of the common Catholic vocabulary, those who preach and teach (in the home, in the classroom) must find how closely knit these letters are to the Scriptures - precisely as the church reads those Scriptures Sunday by Sunday, gabe huck Liturgy Training Publications Restraining euphoria Fitchburg, Mass...

...I only longed to be an altar girl, lighting the candles before Mass and reciting the Latin responses which I can still do from memory...

...Growing up in the thirties and forties, I never dreamed of being a priest...

...I especially like the perestroikish new type dress, with its ample line leading and banishment of eye-blearying 8 pt...

...While rationality may say '' Improbable," the hearts of millions are yelling "Yes...

...To the Editors: While David Carlin, Jr...

...Karen Sue Smith's list of materials and programs mentioned one of our publications, for which we are grateful...

...For starters, to scan only the history of the U.S...

...Onward and upward...

...Whatever happens in Rome, whatever decisions come down from the curia, I am a stubborn Catholic who will never leave my "church...

...My husband and I became vegetarians on ethical grounds some four years ago...

...We do not see this approach as just one more clever way to get the pastoral letters talked about...

...The quotations from the pastoral letters were selected on the basis of some shared image with the Sunday's Scriptures...

...It is all creation, however, not merely the human creation, on whose behalf the Spirit pleads...

...Many of our parishioners who can no longer attend Mass would go without the Eucharist without us...

...since ninety-five percent of the world's population is neither in the U.S...

...the general high literary standard-and on and on...

...ANN MARIE DAY Bravos & laughs Brooklyn Heights, N.Y...

...In San Francisco, women even wove the fabric for the vestments he wore...

...were most welcome...

...The book is intended as a way for homilists to make connections between the church's teaching on peace and the economy, on the one hand, and the lec-tionary on the other...

...My delight was that it finally had happened...

...type...

...While the Star Wars contraption waits in the wings with an estimated price tag of $400 billion to $1 trillion, while worldwide human misery rises to a piercing crescendo, we, the people, confront the possibility of relegating the Cold War to "the ash heap of history...

...If so, what is the meaning of church as "people of God...

...It further appears that the elements of Catholic episcopal leadership who share that belief have the political problem of explaining this shift in teaching to Catholics who well might have suffered physical and/or psychological harm from adhering to the traditional teaching...

...Cole-man's review...

...John Judis's enlightening revelations (or confirmations...

...To the Editors: As I sat and watched the U.S...

...To the Editors: Both December 18 articles on the economic pastoral ["Resurrecting the Common Good," and "What's Become of the Pastoral...

...U will] persevere in spite of current conflict over the lack of caring about the laity or women at the recent synod ["Don't Call Us, We'll Call You," by Abigail McCarthy, December 4...

...While I fall completely on the side of the administrative board on this matter, I sincerely believe a public disagreement among the bishops is a welcome change from the lock-step public stance which was the traditional posture of this group...

...I cannot tell you how moving and gratifying it is to have our "witness" recognized...

...The people of both countries, as Eisenhower himself prophesied, are beginning to want peace so much that the elites are scrambling to accommodate this new yearning...

...And the Latin has this lovely ambiguity: omnia creatura may also mean every (individual) creature...

...papal visit, from Miami to Detroit, my feelings were extremely ambivalent...

...perhaps wisely counsels us to restrain our euphoria even as the tentative glimmers of a brave new world of U.S...

...Even in terms of the philosopher Hobbes, whom Carlin frequently refers to, self-interest would seem to fall on the side of peaceful coexistence rather than paeans to Real-politik...

...Or do they not believe these to be life-death situations...

...This book was first published in a 1987-88 edition...

...CORRESPONDENCE Naming the animals Uxbridge, Ontario To the Editors: I want to congratulate Commonweal for its recognition of the animal rights movement, and of the movement's relevance to religion, ethics, and pandemic violence in the modern world ["Dominion over the Earth," by Gabriel Moran, December 4...

...Those of us around the mid-century age mark have no difficulty recalling the teaching we received from all clerical sides about the immorality of contraceptives...

...MORTIMER FRANKEL Pastorals on Sundays Chicago, 111...

...Her description of The Pastorals on Sundays, however, was incomplete...

...To the Editors: One can substantially agree with your editorial, "Getting the Point" [January 15] concerning the U.S.C.C...

...JOSEPH MULHOLLAND...

...It is not to Commonweal's editorial credit, while rightfully noting the strength of the Catholic Conference report, not to mention its historical context as opposed to a statement on the subject earlier in the century...

...Who can forget the condemnation Dr...

...In Romans 8:22-26, Saint Paul speaks beautifully of the way Spirit cries out to God on our behalf...

...Would the same group of bishops counsel teaching of contraceptive use in Central and South America and the Philippines, for the same conceptual reasons as given in their statement...

...No one man, be he priest, cardinal, or pope will ever come between me and God...

...LESLIE JEAN COULTHARD The papal visit San Francisco, Calif...

...A second book for the year - from . (Continued on page 158) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 130) February 21,1988 (First Sunday of Lent) to February 5, 1989 - will also include quotations from the 1986 pastoral letter on mission, To the Ends of the Earth...

...I believe our church leadership must face this situation and open a new dialogue on sexuality with the possibility that mistakes, while well-intentioned, might previously have been made about contraceptives...

...It is good to see the bishops recognize the importance of the relationship of the physical and the moral...

...R. JAY ALLAIN AIDS & contraception Douglaston, N.Y...

...David Car-lin's piece (the only serious treatment of this subject I've found anywhere...

...John Rock received from Catholic theologians when he, a Catholic, invented and commercialized the "pill...

...I wondered how he felt as he watched many women serve as lectors or Eucharistic ministers for his Masses in eleven cities...

...In fact, this outrage (although often unexpressed) goes for the majorities in the superpowers themselves...

...Catholic historians have been adept in rewriting history: Catholic teaching and conflict over biblical studies, slavery, democracy, relations of Catholics to Jews and non-Catholics...

...nor Soviet Union, one can be certain that most of them consider the arms race to be an obscene "danse macabre" whose grisly pirouettes they are compelled to witness...

...I admire the man who lived through Nazi and Communist domination of his native Poland...

...However, on women and family issues, he goes back prior to Vatican II...

...Cheers for Abigail McCarthy's succinct and moving article...

...Soviet relations beckons ["This, Too, Shall Pass," January 15], his analysis is not comprehensive...

...Not to mention Robert Bell's really funny stuff-and that telling cover...

...I have nothing but praise for his stand on peace and nuclear disarmament, and for sharing the world's food products among nations...

...Moran on every point (I am probably a little more radical than he), I wholeheartedly endorse his gist...

...Some years ago, I saw an altar girl and an altar boy serve the priest at Mass in a chapel at a NATO command post in Germany...

...I can recall fearsome verbal duels in my living room with clerics and Catholic laymen (including some editors of Commonweal) when friends of mine began serious questioning of Catholic teaching on contraception...

...Does the pope, or the curia, feel that deprivation of Communion to these shut-ins is worth the deprivation of women to assist in the ministry...

...To the Editors: I can't-and I don't want to-refrain from launching a burst of bravos at the December 18 issue, in many ways the best I've seen yet...

...Though I am not in complete agreement with Dr...

...If overwhelming proportions of Catholics- laypeople, clergy, nuns, brothers, and even theologians-consider contraceptives moral in many circumstances, can the traditional teaching affirmed in this document still be considered "church teaching...

...and the Soviet Union is to succumb to superpower ethno-centrism...